


Price of Betrayal

by zemissinglinkus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Angst, F/F, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, contains a flashback, in which Lana has the emotional breakdown during Crisis of Umbara that we were all expecting, somewhat deviates from canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 03:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12356319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zemissinglinkus/pseuds/zemissinglinkus
Summary: Crisis of Umbara from Lana's point of view. Theron's betrayal would have stung a lot more than what was shown in the flashpoint. This is my take on it. Bonus: Lana and the Commander are married. Deviates slightly from canon to correct Bioware's grievous errors, but most of it is the same.





	Price of Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a brief list of relevant information of what's been deviated from canon:  
> -Zakash Vicari is the Alliance Commander. She is a Zabrak Sith Warrior, has married Lana Beniko and they share a Force-Bond.  
> -Lana utilizes two sabers in combat, as was first shown in the previews of kotfe by the devs. I liked it and rolled with it.  
> -The Outlander didn’t get frozen in carbonite straight away. Arcann had to make a spectacle of it on a galactic-wide holo stream and personally ‘killed’ the Outlander as a propaganda film. This was false.  
> -Iokath didn’t happen. Instead, a ‘traitor’ leaked false information that caused all three factions to confront each other. This lead Malcom to form an insurrection campaign within the Republic against the Eternal Alliance and the Sith Empire. Malcolm died after refusing to believe Empress Acina wanted an era of stability for her people, and the rest of the galaxy, to recover from Zakuul's devastating reign.  
> -Elara was with Jorgan and the rest of Havoc Squad when Zakash recruited them on Zakuul. She did not side with Malcom during his insurrection campaign.

_“If you topple the Alliance, millions will die!”_

_“If that’s the cost of peace, so be it!”_

There were explosions in her ears. Lana could barely move. Her limbs felt like they’d lost circulation, but there wasn’t an agonizing pain in her abdomen. She was having trouble thinking, let alone breathing. As if she’d been shocked by another Sith, or…

_Had Theron’s gun been set to stun?_

“Lan-na!” Zakash’s voice rang in her ears, echoing in vibrations. She could feel her wife’s panic. The train was going to crash. They were going to die.

She couldn’t _move._ She couldn’t _think._ She couldn’t process what she needed to do at this very _instant_ to save herself and that of her partner.

_What is happening?_

“Darlin-ng, hold on to m-me!” Lana felt Zakash turn her over and she caught glimpse of her wife. Zakash was terrified, and angry. Her eyes burned auburn when they usually glowed their Zabrak green. “We hav-ve to get out of here!”

Zakash picked Lana up and held her close to her chest. The best Lana could do was grip the cloth on Zakash’s shoulders where her cape started. She wasn’t quite sure what happened next. There was a sound of some glass shattering, then Lana suddenly felt weightless right before they slammed into the ground. Then a sonic boom and the horrendous noise of screeching metal overcame her senses. Cracks of electricity hung in hair when it all started to become quiet.

It became strikingly obvious just how much the sound of the impact had affected her in that moment. Lana’s eardrums were ringing and she realized she’d been shouting from the pain. Zakash’s body covered hers like a shield. The Zabraki woman was heavy, but she was breathing. That’s all that mattered right now.

“Lana…” Zakash’s concerned, breathless gasp caught her attention. “Lana, are you alright?”

“Yes,” Lana mumbled. Her ribcage was definitely bruised. Probably had a few fractured ribs at the very least. The obnoxious ringing in her ears finally stopped and Lana blinked, taking a moment to reconfigure her senses. Pain throbbed through their bond, but she didn’t feel any serious wounds on Zakash. It could wait.

“Good,” her wife grunted as she got up. Zakash extended her arm to Lana and helped her up. A quick glance was all Lana needed to understand the magnitude of what Theron had done. He’d sabotaged the grav-rings and the train had been almost completed destroyed. Boxes were scattered everywhere amongst dozens of dead Umbarans. There had to have been a hundred or more people on the train before collision.

Lana could feel herself trembling. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, then searched through the Force for her lightsabers. They had to be somewhere nearby in the wreckage.

“Theron’s on the other side of the ridge. I can feel the second shipment of crystals here,” Zakash spoke again. She sounded far more stable than Lana could bring herself to be. That stunner really scrambled her senses.

Lana narrowed her eyes as she continued to search. “He only took half… why would he do that?”

_Why would Theron betray us?_

She felt two sparks of familiarity in the Force and called out to her sabers, but only one came. Lana flinched and rushed towards the other within the wreckage nearby. “That bastard… he didn’t!”

“Careful, love!” Zakash called out, no doubt realizing Lana was swaying as she walked. It didn’t matter to Lana. She bent down near several boxes and shoved them away with the Force. Underneath lay her broken second saber. The hilt was shattered, though the ruby crystal was still intact.

Rage built within her. She’d built that saber when Zakash had gone missing— or rather because Zakash had gone missing. Lana had trained herself to adopt a much more aggressive melee style during her and Theron’s Zakuulan rebel days. She’d have to build another.

“How befitting,” she hissed. Memories began to surface as Lana took the crystal and tucked it into her pocket. Theron’s presence suddenly stood out in her mind like a beacon. She was ready to hunt.

“You can still use your other. Come on, we have to stop Theron,” Zakash urged, placing a hand on her shoulder for a moment. Lana looked at her wife, felt her urgency, and nodded.

They took off. Every swing of her saber, use of the Force, every step she took — it was all automated. They had to find Theron. This was all wrong.

They tore through the aggressive wild-life and several displaced Umbarans who began shooting on site. She couldn’t figure out how this came to be, how she didn’t see it coming. Her thoughts began distracting her until danger alerted her to a sniper about to take a shot. She immediately rolled to the side and Zakash’s rage sparked. The Commander lifted the guard two stories up in the air, then slammed him head-first into the rocks below.

“We have to survive long enough to make Theron pay!” she shouted over her shoulder.

But that was just it, wasn’t it? Lana didn’t think any of this was happening. None of this was real. Theron wasn’t a traitor — he wasn’t. He wouldn’t… Not after everything they’d been through. This wasn’t Theron.

This wasn’t the Theron that Lana had trusted her life with. This wasn’t the Theron who had put everything on the line with her so they could save the galaxy several times over, who’d helped build **_their_** Alliance, who’d held Lana in those dark hours when everything felt like it was falling apart.

This wasn’t… This could not be Theron.

They were homing in on Theron’s presence now. He was near the second shipment of crystals and probably getting them loaded on the ship that was on her sensors. The situation confused her more. Both shipments had been right next to each other. It wouldn’t have been difficult to load them both.

_How did he get so sloppy?_

Theron was many things, but sloppy was never one of them. He was calculated and precise, much like Lana was. It was why they’d worked so well together.

None of this made sense.

“Darling, we have to hurry!” Zakash shouted as they ran. Lana could feel her thoughts rummaging for another way up, then focusing on the cliffside. An image popped through their connection and Lana knew exactly what Zakash was thinking.

“Let’s do it!”

They rushed over, drawing on the force to enhance their stamina right before leaping to each dip in the cliff. As they scaled the side, Lana started wondering how they were going to break this to the Alliance. Theron Shan. Top advisor and co-leader to the Alliance turned rogue terrorist. There was no good way they could spin this. This was going to be catastrophic to morale.

“Worry about that later, Lana,” Zakash muttered as they neared the top. “We need to reach him first.”

Their boots landed only a second apart from each other, and right in front of them was Theron doing exactly what Lana suspected; hauling the large crate of Adegan crystals towards the ship. Lana started rushing towards him, but a barrage of bullets started firing from a turret on their left. Zakash’s deflected the onslaught while Lana jumped above her and nailed the turret with lightning.

Just as she landed, her wife’s voice boomed in her ears. “Theron Shan! Don’t you dare walk away from me!”

Theron whipped out his pistol while running away from the shipment, clearly intending to leave without it if it meant escaping from them.

“Theron, stop!” Lana yelled. “This isn’t over!”

But he didn’t stop. He kept running. His ship began to depart as he rushed inside, firing shots of blue at them.

_Was he using stun blasts again?  
_

“This is just beginning!” he shouted back, just as the ship’s door locked and began to take off.

 _“Stop the traitor!”_ That thought roared through Lana and Zakash’s bond like a raging inferno. They both had the same idea. If they couldn’t convince Theron to stop, they’d force him.

Stretching out, they channeled their emotions in tandem determination to bring that ship down. All her pent-up anger and pain surfaced within Lana as she focused on that one goal with Zakash. A lurching noise from the ship echoed in the air as it struggled. Heat started to blast from the engine as Theron tried fighting them.

A sonic shout rumbled through the air from Zakash. “You’re not getting away, Theron! Stop this! Stop this NOW!”

They nearly had him. Thirty meters. Twenty. Fifteen…

_**BOOM.** _

A white light hit them from behind. Lana’s ears began ringing again and Zakash suddenly crashed into her. Their focus on Theron’s ship broke off. The last noise she remembered hearing were the jets revving up again for takeoff.

* * *

 

_“Lana? What the hell are you doing here?”_

_Despite the harshness in Theron’s voice, it was good to see him alive and well. She spared the pleasantries. They hadn’t the time.  
_

_“Zakash is alive.”_

_“What?” She felt a great deal of concern from Theron as his expressions shifted. Shock, pain, concern. “Lana,” Theron’s voice was quiet now, the way he talked about sensitive subjects, “Zakash died on the holo feed… you saw it. We all did.”_

_Frustrated grief and hopelessness crept in on Lana, but she wouldn’t let her fears control her. Too many people had told her this and dismissed her as nothing more than a woman grieving the loss of her fiancée. She was not about to let Theron be one of them._

_“Will you stop talking and listen to me? _Theron, you are the only one I can trust!”_ Lana grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes. Her voice wavered on the verge of shouting. She hesitated one second, waiting for him to respond, but he didn’t. He looked at her with a stern, but an attentive face.  
_

_She knew that face. He’d listen._

_“We saw what they wanted us to see — what Arcann wanted. They knew Zakash was too far away for anyone in Imperial or Republic Space to feel her die, but they didn’t count on her having forged a bond with someone. It doesn’t matter how far away one of us is, we can still feel each other.” Lana brought a hand up to her chest and clutched at the fabric beneath. “I **feel** her, T _heron._ Right now! She’s locked up in some kind of stasis. Her subconscious keeps calling out to me… She’s on Zakuul, I know it.”_

_He stayed quiet, staring at her. His thoughts were churning, but she couldn’t get a read. Lana tightened her grip. He couldn’t abandon her. Not like this. Not after all they’d been through. “Please, Theron, you have to believe me. I need your help. There’s no one left in this galaxy for me to ask. Zakash is the key to solving this! She’s the only one—”_

_“I know, Lana, and I believe you,” Theron interjected softly, “but if your fiancée is on Zakuul, we’re gonna need a lot of firepower and intel to break her out.”_

_“You’ll help then?”_

_Theron chuckled and rubbed his neck. “I kinda owe you for my screw up on Ziost, don’t I?”_

_The mere mention of Ziost was agonizing even a year after. She could still hear the screams, see citizens turning into ash, Zakash fighting the dozens of Jedi under Vitiate’s thrall… An overwhelming number of things had changed, and yet so little. Here they were again, the two of them; teaming up to save the galaxy._

_“That’s… in the past now. I don’t want to—”_

_“Plus,” Theron interjected, his eyes staring at her with that spark of hope he always carried with him, “if it means finding that one person who can save this galaxy from the inferno it’s in right now, I’ll go to the ends of the galaxy to find her with you.”_

_Tears welled in Lana’s eyes as her heart swelled. “Then let’s stop this war, together.”_

_“Just like old times.”_

* * *

Lana woke with a start. Immediately her senses informed her Zakash was alive and right beside her. Theron, however, was gone. There wasn’t even a slight trace of his presence on Umbara. He’d gotten away, and she’d been left without answers.

A soft crackle alerted Lana of the small fire behind them. She willed her body to turned around to survey the extent. It was only a small fire from a container nearby, but it wasn’t much of a threat. Theron must’ve detonated it.

_Had he planned for that too?_

Her eyes drifted towards the crate of crystals. They were still there, ready to be loaded. She turned her attention back towards her wife and sighed. They needed to get out of here and get these crystals secured for the Alliance… then begin damage control.

There was a sharp pain in her shoulder as Lana tried to crawl over to Zakash. She winced and made a sharp hissing sound through her teeth. That was probably dislocated.

She pushed past it and gripped Zakash’s shoulder with her good arm to turn her over with some help from the Force.

“Zakash!” Lana shook her wife, then laced her voice within their bond. _“Zakash, wake up!”_

Bright green eyes fluttered open this time.There was a spark of intense confusion that resonated from Zakash, though it lasted briefly. Then the anger began to rise, and with it, the green in her irises were replaced by orbs of sun.

“Karking son of a tuk’ata… what happened?”

“Theron detonated a concussive canister behind us. He must’ve anticipated us reaching him.”

Zakash groaned, running her hands down her facial mask and slowly sat up. Lana could feel pain throbbing from her partner’s head. The blast had been closer to her and was no doubt the cause of her massive headache.

“Hold still,” Lana muttered as she pried gently pried the mask off with the Force. She looked at the back of Zakash’s head and saw no sign of injury. “I think you’re fine. We probably should get checked for concussions later, though.”

Zakash grew silent as she got out her datapad. She pressed several buttons, activating an emergency beacon to headquarters. Lana then felt her wife staring at her. “Your shoulder feels dislocated.”

Lana blinked and realized Zakash could feel the throbbing. She wasn’t barely paying attention to it. “I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll drink this, then be fine.” Zakash floated a blue medical tube towards her good hand. Lana begrudgingly opened the cap with the Force and downed the substance. It sent a buzzing through her head. The pain would subside in a few minutes.

Zakash opened a comm channel with a contact, though all words spoken were drowned out as Lana’s mind went numb again. So much had happened. Here she was just sitting here on the Umbaran earth with a crate of crystals, Theron nowhere to be found, her secondary lightsaber broken, her several bruised ribs and a dislocated shoulder… all of this, it didn’t seem real.

_Why is this happening?_

“Vette’s on the way with Elara and Havoc Squad,” Zakash’s voice tuned in through their bond. “ETA thirty minutes.”

Lana could feel her wife gently probing. She knew what Zakash was going to ask next and her mental barriers began to form. Lana reflexively curled her legs towards her chest. She didn’t want to answer. She couldn’t answer.

Her arms lay in her lap, cradling her stomach. They had started to shake and Lana suddenly felt sick. Of all the people the traitor could have been, the last person she had wanted it to be was Theron.

_So why didn’t I see the obvious?_

Lana felt Zakash’s arm curl around her back. She leaned into Zakash, burying her face into the crook of her neck as thoughts kept intruding. She bit her lip until blood flowed into her mouth.

_I didn’t want to. It’s as simple as that, isn’t it?  
_

“Let it out.”

It was spoken in a whisper, but that’s all Zakash had to say. Suddenly all the confusion congesting Lana’s mind melted into a deep pool of rage, pain, and grief. It burned in her chest and seized at her throat with the ferocity of a hungry tuk’ata. She felt like she was drowning fifteen feet under water with no surface to swim to.

Zakash’s protective hold tightened. “Let it out, love. I’ve got you.”

Finally she found air, and with it, a choking sob finally escaped her lungs. It wracked her heart raw and stabbed at her stomach. Tears streamed down her face at a pace far beyond her control while a white-hot anger boiled to the surface at herself, this galaxy, and Theron Shan.

Nothing made sense.

Pouring her agony into form, Lana screamed with the full weight of her emotions. The ground shuddered beneath her and an alarm went off from some device, but that didn’t stop her. She let it out until her throat shuddered and she had to fight for air while sobbing.

She nearly lost Zakash again today. Her best friend had tried to kill them both — the only friend left in this galaxy that she truly felt she could be completely open to.

_Had nothing been sacred between them? Had it all been just lies and games?_

Questions ran through her head faster than she could keep up with them. She felt Zakash’s protective bubble around them collapse as her hand rubbed Lana’s back in one slow repeated motion. Lana noticed her breathing had slowed to steady sighs and hiccups from exhaustion. Her mind had numbed just enough for her to start processing the last two hours.

_Why now? Of all times to get angry about the direction their Alliance was going, why take action against this now — when they’d come so far? What did he have to gain?_

Theron preached of wanting peace on the train, yet they were not reflected in his actions today. He had caused the death of at least a hundred or more workers, not to mention those from Malcolm’s insurrection campaign with that data leak.

It was that kind of monstrous, genocidal thinking that united Theron and Lana together on Manaan and Rishi against Revan and his cult. It was what brought them together on Yavin IV and Ziost against Vitiate’s destruction. The exact same mentality was what brought them together again to stop Zakuul, rescue Zakash, and form this Alliance.

If this had somehow been all an elaborate rouse, Lana didn’t buy it. Something had to be wrong and Theron had been caught up in the middle of it all. Or…. or maybe Lana hadn’t known Theron as well as she thought for the past seven and a half years.

She had let her guard down, let him sneak his way into her heart where she took great pride in guarding against this sort of thing. Theron had done the same thing on Ziost, hadn’t he? He’d sent a spy to sneak into Imperial Intelligence and gain intel on her — and that’d cost the lives of hundreds more than was necessary.

Lana had let him into her life again even after that. She’d told herself it’d been all but fair after she’d thrown him to Revan. She had told herself to let it go for the good of the galaxy. They needed to work together again to save Zakash and stop Zakuul.

So once they achieved what they had intended to accomplish, Theron must have planned to leave like this. Out with a bang.

She had let this happen again.

_How could I have been so blind?_

“Don’t start. Don’t do this to yourself, love. This is not your fault.” Zakash’s husky voice carried through the room and caught her attention. Lana blinked for a second, then looked up at her wife. “The only person who let this happen was Theron. He could have talked to us. We’d done it hundreds of times repeatedly. Never once did he voice such violent opinions. He raised valid questions, but always we took his opinion to account and we formulated a solution that worked for all three of us as much as we could. This was our Alliance. It was never just you, me, or him. He knew that.”

Lana nodded slowly, her mind running over their countless discussions and arguments. Zakash was right… but maybe— No. Doubt was the name of the game now. Theron’s actions were all an effort to cause doubt amongst the Alliance and set the galaxy against them. If she gave into that, she’d be playing right into his trap.

“We need to get answers,” Zakash spoke again. “We need to find him and figure out what game he’s playing. I don’t buy his _‘peace at the cost of millions’_ excuse. I want to know the real reason he’s betrayed us.”

“And why he decided to help me save you if his intentions were to kill you after…” Lana blinked a moment, then realized she’d said that aloud. But a look at Zakash’s tear-filled eyes told Lana she’d said exactly what they’d both been thinking.

They’d both let Theron get too close.

And this was their price to pay.


End file.
